Ann and Roy Butler Trail Hiking Guide
The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail runs a ten-mile loop around Lady Bird Lake through the middle of Austin, and it is the piece of infrastructure locals would defend most fiercely. Crushed granite underfoot, thirty-two feet of elevation change across the entire circuit, a boardwalk cantilevered out over the water on the south-east side, and the downtown skyline reflected in the lake for most of it.
The Loop and Its Bridges
The full circuit is about ten miles, but the bridges across the lake — Congress Avenue, South First, Lamar, Pfluger, MoPac and Longhorn Dam — let you cut it into loops of almost any length. Three miles, four, six, ten: pick your bridge. That flexibility is why the trail works for a lunchtime walk and a long training run equally well, and it is the first thing to understand about using it.
The Boardwalk
The south-east section that used to force people onto Riverside Drive now runs on a boardwalk built out over the water, about a mile of it. It is the best stretch of the whole loop — right at water level, with the skyline ahead and cormorants on the pilings. It is also fully accessible, as is most of the trail, which makes this genuinely usable for wheelchairs and strollers in a way almost no other Austin outdoor route is.
Shared and Busy
This is a hike-and-bike trail and everyone uses it: runners, commuters, dog walkers, tourists on rented bikes. Keep right, pass on the left, and keep dog leads short rather than extended across the path. At peak times — weekday evenings, weekend mornings — it is genuinely crowded, and treating it like a quiet nature walk will frustrate you. Early morning is calm and the light on the water is worth the alarm.
Bats, Birds and the Lake
The Congress Avenue Bridge holds the largest urban bat colony in North America, and from spring through autumn around a million Mexican free-tailed bats emerge at dusk. The trail is one of the best places to watch it. The lake itself supports herons, egrets, cormorants and turtles, and the riparian corridor is more alive than a downtown waterway has any right to be.
Heat, Shade and Season
Shade is patchy — good under the pecans and cypress on the north shore, thin elsewhere. Central Texas summer makes midday laps unpleasant and occasionally dangerous, so locals run at dawn or after dark. Autumn through spring is superb. There are water fountains and restrooms at intervals, which is unusual and useful, and the trail is lit in places but not throughout.
Hiking tips for Ann and Roy Butler Trail
- Use the bridges to size your loop — three, four, six or the full ten miles, depending on which crossing you take.
- Walk the boardwalk section at water level; it is the best mile of the loop and fully accessible.
- Keep dog leads short rather than extended, and keep right — this is a busy shared trail, not a quiet path.
- Time an evening lap for the Congress Avenue bat emergence between spring and autumn.
- Go at dawn in summer; midday laps in Central Texas humidity are genuinely unpleasant and sometimes unsafe.
Nearby trails to explore
- Barton Creek Greenbelt
- Mount Bonnell
- McKinney Falls Homestead Loop
Hike this trail with TrailMates
The Butler Trail is where Austin walks, runs and meets. Use TrailMates to find groups doing morning laps around Lady Bird Lake or evening bat-bridge walks. Download the TrailMates app to join them.